This invention relates to a lock plates used with threaded fasteners and more particularly to an improved two-piece infinitely adjustable lock plate and retaining ring arrangement for a threaded fastener.
The present invention is an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,117 issued Mar. 10, 1992 to Mikel et al. entitled Infinitely Adjustable Bolt Locking Plate, assigned to the assignee of the subject application. The '117 patent disclosed a lock plate for a hex-head gear mounting bolt having a longitudinal axis of symmetry along which a generally rectangular central aperture extends. The aperture has transversely opposed internal side edges and longitudinally opposed arcuate end edges. A pair of spaced apart longitudinal side straps are offset upwardly from the flat plate. The plate provides a pair of opposite end bases defining a pair of mirror image arcuate slots having a common center of curvature on the plate longitudinal axis. The aperture internal side edges contact opposite side flanks of the gear bolt hex-head enabling web retaining bolts to be received in each plate base arcuate slot and an underlying one of a pair of diametrically opposed threaded web bores. Upon driving the pair of web bolts, the gear retaining bolt is prevented from backing off from its tightened position.